


total recall

by diapason



Series: ghostbur *dial up noises* [4]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alivebur, Amnesia, BAMF Wilbur Soot, Gen, Ghostbur, Hopeful Ending, Hurt TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Memory Loss, Protective Wilbur Soot, Resurrection, Sleepy Bois Inc as Family, Wilbur Soot and TommyInnit are Siblings, but emotionally, last installment in this series :(, not so good guy philza, re-alivebur, references to tommy's trauma at the hands of dream, rip this series and rip ghostbur ill miss you both, traumatised tommyinnit, why isnt that a tag yet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 12:35:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28670877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/diapason/pseuds/diapason
Summary: and when he remembers everything he lost, but none of what he gained, what then?
Relationships: Wilbur Soot & Phil Watson, Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit, Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit & Phil Watson
Series: ghostbur *dial up noises* [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2078643
Comments: 44
Kudos: 470





	total recall

**Author's Note:**

> had to get this out TODAY before it became non-canon lmao

Wilbur Soot opens his eyes.

And he’s not dead.

The wide blue sky is open before him - the explosives all went off, he knows this, he knows the taste of salt and air in his lungs and the burn of the blast and then two stabs to the chest -

But he’s here. Now. Still.

“Phil?”

“Yes?”

Which… wow. He hadn’t really expected an answer. Flat on his back in the wide blue sky, he’d honestly expected nothing but the raging war that should definitely still be going on without him, Techno promised Withers, two whole Withers, Techno should be keeping everybody busy while Phil runs for his life to get back home and far away from Wilbur’s forever unfinished symphony, the crater he’s created, the mess. But he’s still here.

Obviously because he didn’t finish the job.

“I thought I told you to kill me.”

“And I have. Twice, actually.”

Wilbur blinks, pushes up on unsteady arms, comes face to face with broken stone and grass and dirt, Phil’s voice remaining constant behind him. This is the button room? All the writing on the walls is gone. Scrubbed clean, it looks like - but it was just there a minute ago, there’s no time to have -

“What?”

“I did exactly as you asked, son.”

But - “I’m still here.”

“That’s because you asked to be.”

What?

  
  
And then -

“Phil! Did it work!”

“Yeah, mate, he’s back.”

“Oh my god, can I see him?”

“If you like. Be gentle.”

Tommy, acting like he’s a circus act, on display at the freak show. Wilbur drops his head.

“Where’s my coat?”

“Oh. Yeah, it kind of got… very burned. Fundy asked us to.”

What? Fundy? Fundy should be out there, not here, attending to -

“Techno. Where is he. He’s supposed to be keeping you lot busy.”

A pause, and he can _feel_ the looks that Phil and Tommy are exchanging, one nervous, the other confused.

It’s too quiet for things to be the way they’re meant to be.

“What happened, Phil?”

Phil clears his throat. “You might want to take a look.”

Nothing could have prepared Wilbur for the sight of the Crater that is Ex-L’Manberg. Chunk error deep holes in every corner, all water drained, wooden bridges he doesn’t recognise left broken and unusable in the wreckage. How in the fuck did eleven and a half stacks of TNT do… _this?_

Wait. No. This wreckage is old. And quiet, far too quiet for the war that’s still meant to be raging around him, because November 16th’s still not over yet, the sun’s still high in the sky and burning like the fire he was meant to die amidst -

“Where is the war?”

“Over. L’Manberg is gone. You showed up… a little late, actually, and you were very upset about Friend dying, but -”

“Friend?”

“The sheep,” Tommy supplies. “Your… girlfriend, or whatever.”

"What?" What the fuck?

"Come on, you never shut up about Friend, where's the enthusiasm gone?"

"Tommy, mate -"

"That and your 'blue' fixation, if that's gone with you coming back I'm gonna miss it, honestly, I loved -"

"Tommy."

He stills, quiet as a soldier. Wilbur matches him - obviously there's information he's missing, if Tommy's ramblings are to be believed.

"I think I've got it."

Tommy shifts his head sideways, almost imperceptibly - but Wilbur knows his brother and he knows that it's permission for Phil to surprise him.

"Will, you don't - do you remember being dead?"

"What do you mean?"

"Because it seems to me like you've lost the last two months entirely."

Two months?

"It's January tenth, Wilbur."

"J-" The thought's derailing. "No."

And then it's Tommy speaking again, butting in exactly where he's not wanted, ruining the moment. "So we completely lost Ghostbur? Aw, that's shit, that is, I love Ghostbur, I'm gonna miss Ghostbur."

"Who the fuck is Ghostbur?"

"Oh, well, it's - it was you. But, like, less… angsty."

"Will," his father says, crouching, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder, "you've missed a lot. And we can tell you all about it, if you need - but first I'd like to get out of this stupid hillside and back to Techno's."

"Not Techno's," Tommy insists gruffly, arms crossed.

"Where else are you suggesting?"

"My house! I green-topped it again, Tubbo and I have been Expanding. Plenty of room for Alivebur to hang out, enriched environment like a free-range chicken."

"What -" Phil doesn't waste time on Tommy's insanity. "Right, yeah, we'll bring Alivebur to the dirt shack. Come on, mate, up you get."

And he does, still confused as all hell, mostly about this newfound distinction between Alivebur and Ghostbur that's apparently popped up in the two months that he lost entirely, but not without mention his family's suggestion that Techno has a safe house of his own they can go to, or that Phil would be on the side of going there, after what Techno was supposed to have -

"So did Techno set off his Withers, in the end? Is that why the Crater's so…"

"Yeah," Phil exposits as Tommy hurries them out of the wreckage and on to the first few broken bits of the Prime Path they can reach, "but you're thinking of the wrong Withers. He only had two last time, you know that?"

"Wha- _only two?"_ he borderline splutters.

"It was ridiculous!" Tommy complains, "he had this whole massive speech about 'ooh, Ta-heseus, you want to be a hero?' and he set them on us and then we took them down in about ten minutes! Didn't half leave a mark, but he's SUCH an English major, I bloody hate it. Can't believe I spent a month _befriending_ him."

"The point I was trying to make, Tommy, is that Techno and I set off about ten times that many last week. Two's nothing. Not to mention - oh, sorry, forgot, you don't like me to say that name."

Even from the back, Wilbur can tell the speed at which Tommy withdraws, paling, his steps quickening as they round a corner and pass through a tunnel. "I'm gonna miss Ghostbur," he says again.

"I can't believe I was a ghost and I don't -"

"Yeah, yeah, Ghostbur! He was great. He's the only one who came to live with me. Disappeared a bit at the end, but it wasn't his fault, you know, it was -" He stops, and Wilbur can tell it's not his place to prod at whatever wound Tommy just exposed.

"I am going to need the whole story from the top." They're almost at Tommy's house now, he reckons - the old embassy.

"Phil?"

"I mean, I was on house arrest for most of it, mate, I can't give the _whole_ story."

"Yeah, but you were actually _in_ L'Manberg, you got to see what was going on with everyone at home - did you see the Techno…?"

"Yes." Tommy pulls his doors open and invites Wilbur inside with Phil. They descend quickly into Tommy's basement and take up residence in a small stone chest room, walking straight past a dark hallway with no time to reflect on its contents.

"So. Whole story. Who's going first?"

Tommy and Phil look at each other. For the first time, Wilbur spots a missing spark behind Tommy's eyes, and sees at the same time that Phil should be wearing green, but he's in blue.

"Right." Phil is the one to start. "You told me to kill you, and I did. Boom. Gone. Next minute Techno's saying his piece about all the work he put in - and he said he gave you guys a lot of gear, I assume that's all true - he told off Tommy for how he acted, told him if he wanted to be a hero he could - what was it?"

"Die like one," Tommy quotes faithfully.

"Okay, so we take on the Withers, we look down on the wreckage, President Tubbo declares that we've got to rebuild, and everybody starts construction - I had a lovely little house in the middle of town, you know. And right as we're filling up the hole with water, making everything look nice, cutting off the holes in the sewers, guess who shows up?"

Wilbur knows the answer should be obvious from Phil's tone, but he tilts his head for a clue.

"A little grey ghost, wearing a nice hat and a yellow jumper, not really sure what's happened."

Oh. Right.

"But the thing about Ghostbur," Tommy suddenly fills in, "the thing about Ghostbur was that he - he only had happy memories, right? And if he remembered anything sad -" he makes a weird noise, like the sound of a ghost vanishing "- off he pops back to spawn. So you've got to be _really_ careful with Ghostbur, right?"

"Really careful," Phil agrees. "And he built a little house in the sewers where he kept all his books, and he built a load of lovely Chinese lanterns, and he built - no, I'm getting ahead of myself. It was nice, even if he didn't really remember much of anything."

"You know he told me, once, he told me that his memory went: winning the election, in a ravine, stabbed to death?"

Wilbur remembers far more than his dead self apparently ever could. He remembers every second of the Schlatt administration, arrow to the shoulder causing his second death, hiding in a hole until he deluded himself into thinking it was paradise. Planting bombs. Dealing with Dream. Losing the button, and gleefully finding it again the next month. Chekov's Gun.

The taste of salt. Air in his lungs. Books. Tunnels. Arrows. And death.

"Yeah, Tommy - so we sorted him out. Sent him off to do his own thing amid the reconstruction. But who goes off and griefs George Not Found's house while his brother's away?"

"Ranboo was there too!"

"Who's Ranboo?"

"You're gonna love him, Alivebur."

"Stop calling me that."

"Tommy," Phil talks over both his sons, "did a couple of crimes. He was sentenced to probation, which he broke. And, a lot of risky moves later, he was exiled."

"Which we still don't support, by the way, we're back on good terms with Tubbo but he was never meant to kick me out, alright?"

Tubbo exiled Tommy?

Maybe the idea of President Tubbo wasn't so ridiculous after all.

"And this is where I lose the story, because I never went to visit -"

"Nobody went to visit," grumbles Tommy.

"- but I do know that Ghostbur went with you. Didn't he?"

"Ghostbur came. And. You know."

"He came too, obviously."

"Who did?"

Tommy withdraws. Phil glares. Right.

"Am I meant to assume we skip past exile, Tommy, mate?"

"No." But he doesn't elaborate.

"I can… do my best."

"No." It's harsh, abrasive, too loud for the terror and the hatred twisting in his expression.

"Then what do you want, mate?"

"I want him to know already," he mutters.

"I'm sorry -"

"Shut up, Ghostbur!"

Silence.

"Wilbur. I mean Wilbur. No more Ghostbur. He asked for death, and he got it. I need -" and now he laughs "- I need some blue. Isn't that ironic?"

Phil nods and puts a comforting hand on Tommy's back.

"I'll miss him too. He had just the least idea of what was going on ever, but he was always so nice."

Wilbur can feel himself slipping back into brooding, and he pulls himself out, no matter the temptation to fall into a mood of jealousy over the person he apparently became and doesn't remember being. The important thing is to find out why the hell he even needed to be raised from the dead in the first place.

Tommy clears his throat. Tears clog up his voice when he speaks, weighing down his words. "Ghostbur built me a place to live. Logstedshire. And he built me a tent, and he helped me build my - you never came to my beach party - sorry, Phil, I know nobody got invited, reflex - and he was… He was there for me. He was always there for me."

"He protected you, I heard. When - when he came looking."

"Techno did too, but Ghostbur tried his best. I never… I never thought it would get so bad that he'd want to come back."

"I mean - it's unfinished business, right?"

"Huh?"

"As long as we rebuilt L'Manberg, Ghostbur was always going to hang around. Now that it's gone, and we're not trying to make it come back, he's… he had no reason to stay."

"I guess."

Wilbur leans forward, just a tad. "You're not rebuilding?"

"Not this time. Dream's made his stance pretty clear."

Tommy goes positively white.

"Oh, mate - sorry, mate -"

"I'm okay," he grits out, hiding his face in his knees, curled up against the wall, pulling at his sleeve.

Dream did this to Tommy?

"I didn't mean to -"

"I know you didn't."

"It's just that he was the main man in charge of -"

"I know. You and Dream and Techno. Blowing up my fucking home. _Again._ It's always been them."

"It was just business -"

"YOU KNOW WHAT'S FUCKING BUSINESS?" Suddenly Tommy's shouting, expanding far past the smallness he was just inhabiting, getting right up in Phil's face. "THE WAY HE TREATED ME - YOU NEVER CAME TO CHECK ON ME - I NEARLY DIED OUT THERE."

"Tommy," Phil tries, to no avail.

"Ghostbur was the _only fucking person_ who did _anything_ to make me feel better out there. He gave me my compass. Techno might have let me live downstairs, Ranboo might have sent me letters, but Ghostbur was the _only one_ who never made any of it about himself, who never pitied me. And Dream -" he cuts himself off, choking.

"I was on house arrest. The day that Techno found you, I watched them butcher him. If it weren't for Dream telling Techno about the woodland mansion, he might not have come home, and then you'd have been stuck in his basement with nothing but what he left there, god only knows how long. You should thank us."

"You sound just like him, you know that?"

And Tommy's crying for real.

"Tom -"

"No. Shut up. I don't want to hear it."

"Tommy, we were just -"

"I don't want to hear it, get _out,"_ he spits.

Phil leaves.

And then it's just Tommy and Wilbur on the stone cold wall of a chest room.

And it's quiet, but for Tommy's infrequent sobs, for a very long time.

As the light from the sun starts to dim and the torches begin to overpower the natural ambiance with their yellow warmth, he looks up and meets Wilbur's eyes.

"He was just watching me," he whispers, and Wilbur has no idea what he means, but he pulls his brother in for a hug anyway.

"I'm sorry I don't remember. It sounds like you really loved him."

"I did, Wilbur, I did. He thought you were a bad person, and he was right, but he didn't know - he couldn't remember - he remembered dying, you know that? You were happy when you died. So he thought, I suppose, he thought you must have been bad."

Wilbur is quiet. He leans his head further into Tommy, pressuring for the crack he knows is forming in his resolve, desperate to know what Dream's done so he can do something about it back.

And he knows his brother too well, because with enough physical contact, he'll say anything.

"When we - when we were in Logsted. He came to visit me every day."

"Mhm."

"He taught me - put your armour in the hole. Let it go. He did it so many times that I -" his voice breaks on an exhale "- he taught me to do it before he asked. So the first time Techno saw me… And he didn't notice. He didn't see that I was doing that because - because of. Him."

"Why were you with Techno?"

"Oh, I had enough of the big man's shit, you know? He found -" Tommy stops, and Wilbur runs his thumb across Tommy's spine until he works up to the information "- he found my stuff. My stuff. It was supposed to be something just for me. But he found it and he - I couldn't just have one thing, Wilbur, one secret, he had to… And then he left. And I nearly - I mean, I made this massive pillar, I was almost - but I landed in the water instead, and I couldn't get back up, so I went the only place I knew would have me. And that was Techno."

"And what about Ghostbur? Where was he?"

Tommy swallows. "Dream - and I only heard this from you, not from him, so I don't know if it's all correct - but you were meant to be… handing out my invitations to my beach party. And Dream stepped in and told you no. And you got lost in the woods for a couple of days while I was… yeah. And the next time I saw you it was with that fuckin' sheep girlfriend you've got."

Lost for a couple of days?

"But I was okay. I found Techno's house. I didn't need… I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry I wasn't there."

"No, it's fine, Ghostbur's not - he doesn't - you didn't have to be there. And then we went back and had the next big battle. But the thing about Dream is that he - wow, he really loves just blowing up everything I love, don't he? He couldn't leave it alone. Even though L'Manberg wasn't even mine. I told Techno it was my unfinished symphony, but it was everyone's. And they just tore it to shreds."

"Tommy…" He's not sure what he can say that will fix this. Given that the last thing he remembers choosing to do is exactly what's got Tommy into such a state now, two completely blank months later, he can't exactly appeal to his own virtues on this front.

But there is someone else's virtues he can take credit for.

"What else can you tell me about Ghostbur?"

He looks up again, twisting his neck from where he's been buried in his brother's hold, eyes drying slowly. "He did this thing. You know - he used to go around and say 'have some blue, Tommy, calm yourself, here, take some blue'. And it didn't even fucking _do_ anything, but we all used to - we used to say 'thank you Ghostbur, that really helped, I feel better already', because he was so - he didn't - he was just like a kid. He just wanted everyone to be happy, like him. And maybe that's because if he wasn't happy he would lose his new memories, too, but… It was nice to lie to him. Tell him everything was gonna be fine."

Wilbur can't help the small and somber smile that creeps onto his lips. "You liked lying to him?"

"Better than the truth. 'No, Ghostbur, we're not lads on tour. I'm a criminal in a prison of my own making and we're going to die out here. No, Ghostbur, your blue isn't a magical substance that sucks up sadness. It's dye made from rocks and flowers and it does nothing. No, Ghostbur, I don't not mind telling you your life story again. I hate it and I've been here too long and I just wish you were alive again, I wish you…" He trails off. Realising, it dawns on Wilbur, that that's exactly what he's got.

"I missed you, Tommy."

"Tubbo says I've changed."

"It sounds like you deserved to. Everything you've been through. You liked Ghostbur because he let you pretend everything was nice - it's not nice, revolution was never nice, but he didn't remember any of the real bits. It changes a man."

"Am I a man, now, then?"

"I don't know. Do you feel like a man?"

"I feel like a mess." He sounds so… broken that Wilbur can't help but squeeze where his arms wrap around his brother.

"It's okay, Tommy," he whispers, scarcely believing it, and with a current of rage beginning to course through the long-dead wires of retribution that run through the undergrowth of his mind. Protective instincts that have never truly left him target the little he's heard about what Dream did while Tommy's protectors were gone, or lost, or didn't know what to do. This, he knows in an instant, this is what he's been resurrected for. And he's not going to ask Tommy to elaborate, to hear more about how Dream destroyed his belongings so much that Techno's gaze could be enough to make him do it himself, or how Dream kept Tommy isolated long enough for a single blast to make him consider -

"What are you thinking?"

The kid's perceptive. Too smart for his own good. He's picked up on the way that Wilbur's grip tightened and his face hardened. He knows there's something brewing.

"Don't worry, Tommy," he says instead, moving to adjust his coat and remembering it's gone _(burnt, apparently, at Fundy's request)_ so electing instead to straighten out his jumper, "I was just thinking about how best to keep you safe from here on out."

"I'm not a baby," Tommy complains, "I can keep myself safe."

"You don't have to."

A beat. They look at each other.

"You're planning something."

"I am."

"I missed you, Wilbur."

"I missed me too." _And Dream is going to fucking pay._

**Author's Note:**

> thus ends the ghostbur series i'm sad to see it go but i'm really fucking excited for re-alivebur in about five hours so it's not all unpog


End file.
